Clarity
by Jen Rock
Summary: A Maria and Brody story. Please RR.


Clarity  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Notes: This is a Maria and brody story. This is an alternate version of the end of the second-season episode "Disturbing Behavior," where they try to use Brody to contact Larak. I added Maria to make it a Maria and Brody story and I made the medical repurcusssions a little more realistic. Enjoy.  
  
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She knew it was a bad idea the moment Isabel suggested it. Not a bad idea in the sense that it was unlikely to work but bad because Brody didn't deserve to be used like that. He'd confided more to Maria than anyone else how helpless and scared and angry the abductions made him feel. How much he hated knowing his body and mind could be taken over and used by some alien source without him knowing why or when it would happen again.   
  
But it might work and she couldn't tell them why it was so wrong. That would be revealing too much of Brody's quiet, personal confessions so Maria kept her mouth shut even though a little voice in the back of her head nagged at her to say something, to object even a little.  
  
Brody looked skeptical when Isabel claimed she could hypnotize him in an attempt to help him remember his abductions (Liar, the little voice screamed, you're just doing this for yourselves) and for a minute she hoped he'd refuse. Then Liz gave her such a pleading look that she knew she had to try and help and Maria swallowed her doubt and forced herself to speak.  
  
"It's true. Isabel's really good at hypnosis. I've seen her do it before."  
  
Brody smiled gently at her. "Well, alright then. I suppose it can't hurt to try one more time." He trusted her judgement and she prayed that nothing happened here to break that trust he had in her.  
  
He sat in a chair and Isabel crouched down so that they were on the same level. She put her hands on either side of his face and they locked eyes. For a second nothing happened and then there was an explosion of light energy. Maria threw her hands up to protect her eyes from the flash but she still saw sparkles for a few seconds from the exposure.  
  
After blinking a few times, her vision cleared enough for her to see Max helping a dazed Isabel up from where she'd hit the wall. She also saw Brody sprawled on his side against the opposite wall. For one horrible moment, seeing him lying there so still and with his eyes open, she was sure he was dead and the thought made her want to scream. She couldn't move but then he spoke and she remembered to breathe again.  
  
"You shouldn't have done that." Max went to help Brody the but it wasn't Brody. It was his voice but Maria knew it wasn't him. The words were spoken too evenly and his eyes were still blank as Max pulled his body up to a sitting position against the wall. She knew it was Larak before he identified himself to Max and Isabel.   
  
When Larak said that Brody's heart had stopped, there was that sickening lurch inside her again and it was all she could do to pay attention as they discussed the gandarium. (Brody's dead and it's your fault! Her inner voice screamed. No. Max will help him. He healed Liz and Kyle and little Sydney and those other children. He won't let Brody die, she thought numbly but the voice just kept screaming, he's dead!)  
  
Larak left Brody's body abruptly and his eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped sideways. That broke her inner conflict and she ran to help Max as he caught Brody and laid him flat. She curled her fingers around his limp hand and glared at Max through the tears that were starting to form.  
  
"You have to help him!" Max reached for Brody with his hands glowing but Liz stopped him.  
  
"No, you can't do it that way. He'll know. It'll be too suspicious." Max nodded resignedly.  
  
"Liz, call 911." He pushed Maria aside gently as he began CPR. She watched numbly as Max pounded away at his chest, flinching at the sound of a rib cracking. Brody couldn't die. He had to live for his daughter's sake and Maria's as well. She wasn't sure if what she felt for him was love but she wanted a chance to figure it out.  
  
Brody suddenly took a shallow breath and then another and the wail of the ambulance could be heard outside. Max sat back, panting from the exertion. He looked straight at Maria.  
  
"He's going to be alright."  
  
At the hospital...  
Brody's eyes opened slowly, looking at Maria and the others at his bedside with confusion and then growing awareness. He looked down at the IV in his arm and then back at them.  
  
"What happened?" He sounded weak but he was Brody again. Maria shuddered slightly, hating to have to lie to him again but it was necessary so she told him the same lie they'd told the paramedics.  
  
"Everything's going to be okay, Brody. You're in the hospital. You had some kind of seizure when Isabel tried to hypnotize you and your heart stopped briefly but Max got it started again."  
Isabel stepped forward then. "I am so sorry. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I don't know what went wrong." She was genuinally upset but Maria still had to bite her tongue to stop herself from yelling that she shouldn't have used him like that.  
  
"That's okay. It's not your fault. I guess they don't want me to remember what happened." He closed his eyes again and seemed to drift back to sleep. One by one the others left, their attention turning to the problem of how to stop the gandarium now that they were assured Brody was going to be okay. Liz lingered for a moment and gave Maria a hug and a sad smile before leaving with the rest.  
  
Maria sat there for quite a while just watching him sleep. He looked pale and worn but he was going to recover. Eventually, a nurse came in and politely asked her to leave.  
  
"Visiting hours are over and Mr. Davis needs his rest. You can come back tomorrow to see him."  
  
"Okay." Maria stood up from the chair she'd been sitting in and turned to go. Then on impulse she turned back, leaned down, and kissed his forehead before walking to the door. She turned around in the doorway one more time and then walked out, not missing the small smile that formed across his lips. She'd be back tomorrow, no matter what. 


End file.
